Hotel Challis Potts Point — Hotel in Sydney

A total NIGHTMARE – Avoid this disastrous "Hotel" at all costs!

I rarely write reviews, but my experience at Hotel Challis was so awful that I feel compelled to warn others. We booked a standard room, and from the moment we entered, it was clear we had made a huge mistake. The room was shockingly small — I couldn’t even open my suitcase fully to unpack. There was barely any space to move, and what was supposed to be a "standard" room felt more like a cramped closet.

From the television not working to the fridge - this hotel was nothing short of horrible. The walls were so thin that we could hear every single sound from outside the room, and the floor felt like it was about to collapse with every step. I honestly thought we might fall through

I thought I was staying at a motel, not a hotel in one of Sydney’s supposedly better neighborhoods. Naturally, we asked if we could be moved to another room, even offering to pay for an upgrade. The response from the staff? They flatly refused and told us, “Cancel your booking and leave if you don’t like it.” No apology. No attempt to make things right. Just an incredibly rude and dismissive attitude. They did not care about us or our comfort. It was as if they couldn’t be bothered to help, and honestly, I have never felt more disrespected as a guest.

But the real horror came when we left the room and returned later that evening to retrieve our things. Our key stopped working. We tried to use the backup key they gave us, but that did not work either. Now, keep in mind, there is no 24-hour reception at this "hotel," so we were completely stuck outside our room, in the dark, with all of our belongings inside. We had to wait from 9:30pm to around 11:00pm for someone to return and allow us access to the room. The excuse? "The receptionist must have not activated both cards." This is basic hotel management. Unbelievable.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the parking situation was a complete joke. We were told the hotel didn’t have on-site parking, so we had to park a 10-minute walk away. Not only was it inconvenience to have to haul our luggage back and forth twice, but we had to pay for parking on top of the already overpriced room.

I wouldn’t have stayed here for free if I had known what I was walking into. It’s beyond me how a place like this can even call itself a hotel, let alone charge guests anything for the privilege of staying there. The level of incompetence and complete disregard for customer satisfaction was staggering. No empathy, no professionalism, just pure indifference from the staff. This place is a dump—nothing more than a money grab with zero consideration for its guests.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this place like the plague. There are plenty of other hotels in Potts Point that will treat you with respect and provide you with an experience that actually matches what’s advertised. Challis Hotel is a disgrace to the hospitality industry, and I wouldn’t stay here again if they paid me. Save your money, your time, and...

Really unfortunate experience with this hotel. My friend and I were originally staying at the sister hotel “The Jensen”, but on our first night there found cockroaches crawling in our bed in the middle of the night. We had been reassured when booking that there was not a pest control issue, however this was obviously not the case. After calling the after hours number, we were then moved into the Hotel Challis next door. While this transfer in accommodation was really appreciated, we still received no apology or refund/reimbursement for our highly inconvenienced first night here. We were continually told that someone from management would ring us to discuss the issues and talk to us, however no one ever called to discuss. Anytime we tried to follow up we were treated with rudeness and disrespect from the staff at Hotel Challis and made to feel belittled. We were then told that the room we were staying in had been booked out and we were going to have to move rooms for the second time, which mean packing and unpacking for our third time in a 4 day period. Upon being relocated to a new room we found cockroaches in this room as well. We then had to spray ourselves for the pests and vacate the premises for 5 hours when we had planned to work from the hotel. This meant bouncing around from cafe to cafe until it was safe to come back. We still felt very uneasy staying in this room and could not wait to leave the next day. Again, we were told my management that someone would call us to follow up, and we received no communication. We finally had to follow up ourselves with the staff and when we explained how unhappy we were they said they would see what could be done. Again we did not hear back and we were forced to follow up ourselves. We ended up getting a refund for 1 night, however due to the continued unpleasant experiences with the cockroaches and staff here at Hotel Challis, the refund was simply not enough to justify what we had been through. I am now leaving this review as a warning to others not to stay at this location unless you want to be mistreated by staff and sleep with cockroaches in your bed, without a care given from the hotel. For a “boutique” 4 star hotel, I was really disappointed. I highly recommend no one waste their money here and choose somewhere else to stay. Wish I could...

The perfect place to stay if visiting Sydney. A beautiful hotel with fabulous staff. Gorgeous to look at and for a few days stay it ticks every box. However, sadly we won’t be staying here again and the only reason is that there just wasn’t enough room for our clothes and toiletries etc. We were staying for 10 days and although we managed to squeeze most of our clothes into the small wardrobe I had to leave my underwear in my suitcase. My toiletry bag was also left alongside my make up bag on top of the small amount of surface under the TV. To say this area ended up cluttered was an understatement. You couldn’t even fit the coffee/tea tray on it, which is why you had to get it out of a tiny cupboard, use it and then put it straight back. There was only 1 small, slim shelf over the basin in the bathroom so only a few toiletries could be left there meaning I had to rummage through my bags every day. My suggestion would be to change the tiny bedside glass top tables (With lamps on) To slightly larger bedside cabinets to put iPads/headphones/chargers/cables etc in and instead of the table underneath the mirror, with a only a small surface area and only 1 tiny drawer, I’d put another cupboard of some description with multiple drawers for t.shirts and underwear, hairbrushes/combs, jewellery and cosmetics. The bathroom definitely needs another area for toiletries. This would make the room much more comfortable and welcoming. I just got fed up with it looking a mess because of all our stuff strewn all over the place. We were fully aware that this wouldn’t be a huge hotel room, but we did expect enough places to put our unpacked belongings. I have to say that Potts Point was a lovely place to be based and we walked into Sydney and back every day. There was so many nice places to eat - just up the road from the hotel was a great place to have breakfast. I would definitely recommend this hotel if you are traveling light as it was beautiful and the staff especially at reception...